Scrapple...

It has been said, “To each, their own” - local tastes differ by regions.

If you look at the picture to the right, you'll see a platter of a substance that looks like sausage. At the mere mention of this product people have been known to shudder, gag, and deny its right to exist.

I am speaking of Scrapple ~ traditionally known as a Pennsylvania Dutch dish made of pork scraps and trimmings combined with cornmeal and flour, often buckwheat flour and spices. The mush is formed into a semi-solid congealed loaf, and slices of the scrapple are then pan-fried before serving. The meat is finely minced and seasoned typically with sage, thyme, savory, black pepper and others spices. Scrapple is best known as a regional American food of the Mid-Atlantic States.

Unless you are from this area, you possibly have never even heard of scrapple - and when I first did, I thought it was a joke. Turns out people actually eat that stuff...

Some people confuse its name with the word scraps, but scrapple was never made from scraps, i.e., defined as waste. At the time the name was given to the then new pork product. It meant small bits or pieces, leftovers or "remnants of value".

It's for this reason that scrapple is looked upon with much disdain. It is of my own opinion that those who do the disdaining have never sat down and actually eaten the stuff. It is typically eaten at breakfast in place of other pork products ~ such as bacon or sausage. It is often cut into thin slices, fried until the outsides form a crust.

Scrapple tasted so good, was so easy to serve in so many different ways, that it soon became a favorite dish, growing in popularity as the country grew. Benjamin Franklin refers affectionately to Philadelphia's scrapple in his first writings. George Washington's cook was Pennsylvania Dutch, and the first President's fondness for scrapple lasted his life-time.

What does scrapple taste like? Think bacon and sausage mixed with corn meal, and you'll have a good start. Typically salty like most cured pork products with a fair amount of pork fat mixing ever so lovingly in the corn meal. Depending on who makes it, you can taste everything from sage and Hungarian paprika, to the more basic salt and ground pepper. It's one of those dishes that you have to taste before you truly understand just how good it is. I am one that loves Scrapple ~ lightly fried and serve with scrabbled eggs with crispy toast.

It was a great way to start the day...

Ingredients:

"Everything but the squeal"

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George’s notes:

• Scrapple is probably the first All American pork food. It was "invented" in Chester County, Pennsylvania's oldest settlement--and was the logical result of thriftiness and love of good eating that characterized Chester's early Dutch settlers.
• Vegetarian scrapple, made from soy protein or wheat gluten, is offered in some places. It tends to be sweeter in flavor than typical meat scrapple.